Cookies 101

Hungry for some cookie fundamentals?

Generally speaking, here’s how the sale works in most parts of the country. Please note: Each council will give council-specific procedures for ordering, delivery information, returns, money handling, booth sale sites, etc.

Her first cookie meeting

- To kick off Cookie Season, she will meet with her group to set cookie goals. She will be given her order card and learn all of the cookie basics for a successful Cookie Season. She may learn about some incentives offered if she reaches a certain level of sales. Her group may play games or engage in other activities that help her get ready.

Families on board

- Help her set her personal goal and listen to her practice her sales message. Encourage her to join Cookie Club to ask for online orders and track her goals. Plan to attend the family cookie meeting, return paperwork on time, and stay involved throughout the season to help her reach her goals. Remember to review safety rules.

Taking cookie orders She will take orders for cookies, writing them on her order card or tracking them in Cookie Club. Customers will pay for cookies when she delivers them. She will turn in her cookie orders to her cookie volunteer by the deadline set by your council. In some councils, she can continue taking orders, which will be filled when cookies arrive.

Most Girl Scouts take orders in these ways:

Door-to-door

- Encourage her to sell door-to-door in your community, leaving no doorbell unrung!

By telephone

- It’s fast and easy to sell Girl Scout cookies by phone. Maybe she’ll text friends and family to ask for orders.

At the workplace

- She may make a poster about her goals for you to post at work. Girls also can contact businesses and ask if they can give a sales presentation at a staff meeting or take orders around the office or in the lobby.

Online sales

- Cookie Club is a password-protected site where girls of all ages learn about goals and ask for online orders. (Girls still must deliver cookies and collect payment in person.)

- With Digital Cookie, Girl Scouts can set up their own personalized sales pages, take credit card payments and ship cookies directly to their customers.

Social networking

- Teens can use online social networking sites to ask for cookie orders. Be sure girls follow the GSUSA safety guidelines for online marketing.

Cookies are here!

The cookies are delivered to a central location for pickup. Check your cookies carefully. You are financially responsible for them. Help your girl deliver cookies, collect money and submit money to the cookie volunteer.

Selling direct – booths and more

In this phase of the sale, girls sell with cookies in hand, rather than take orders. They may open a cookie booth, which might be a table in front of a store or in another high-traffic area. Help her by arranging booth sales at work, places of worship, or other locations frequented by people who love Girl Scout cookies. Girls also might load up wagons or parent cars and sell in the neighborhood or at community events. (Be sure to check council rules on booth sites.)

Celebrating Success

When she reaches her goal, remember to celebrate. Enjoy the Cookie Season with your Girl Scout!

How the cookie crumblesAll cookie proceeds stay in your local community to support Girl Scouting in your area, including camps, educational programs and trainings. A portion also goes directly to the group selling the cookies. People love Girl Scout cookies and are generally predisposed to buying them, so it’s a great first business experience for girls.